Welcome to the first of our series of posts looking at how you can boost your resilience.
Resilience is a word we often hear, particularly when professionals are talking about mental health and well-being. It is often touted as the antidote to stress and anxiety – but what is it really? and how do we get some (more) of it? These are the questions we will set out to answer.
Firstly, we will define resilience and how having it can help us to navigate our way through life’s challenges.
Then we will look at mindset – how our thoughts can keep us stuck in a vicious cycle of stress and anxiety and how we can change our thinking in order to feel differently.
Finally, you will have heard the old adage “prevention is better than cure”, so we will look at the triggers for stress and anxiety so you can take action to avoid being triggered by them and instead behave in a resourceful way.
What is Resilience?
Resilience is often referred to as the ability to mentally cope with or adapt to uncertainty, challenges, and adversity. We could therefore think of it as our ability to take challenges in our stride as well as to bounce back when we experience a setback.
Why is Resilience Important?
We live in a fast-paced world where we are often under tremendous pressure (from ourselves and others) to be a particular way, behave in a certain way and to be successful. These pressures can lead to stress and anxiety.
We all need a certain amount of pressure to perform at our best. But if the pressure is too intense or prolonged it becomes toxic leading to stress and anxiety. Our personal resilience is what determines how we deal with these pressures. The more resilient we are, the more pressure we can handle, and maybe even take in our stride without it having a negative impact on our performance or even our health.
If you put a little bit of pressure on the end of a strip of wood or metal it will usually bend. Let it go and it will spring back into shape, but push it too far and it can break.
Just like people, some materials will accept more stress than others. Some can be bent double and spring back without a problem. Some will snap with the slightest pressure others will happily accept greater pressure but push them too far and they will break.
Just as different materials respond differently to pressure, people will respond differently as well. Some seem to relish pressure, soaking it up like a clock spring, easily able to unwind. Others are far less able to cope with any pressure. You need to understand what stress is, what effect it has on people and what causes it. Then you will be better able to recognise stress and take steps to minimise it and its effects.
The first step to developing greater resilience is to know the signs that we are reaching our current limit.
Coach Yourself to Resilience
The Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi suggested that we perform at our best when we are in a state of “Flow”. You experience a flow state when your skills are balanced to the level of challenge in whatever you are doing. If the challenge is too great and/or you don’t have the necessary skills, tools or resources to meet the challenge you will experience stress and anxiety.
When we are experiencing anxiety in relation to a task, we can use this model to coach ourselves by asking the following questions…
- What extra knowledge do I need?
- What skills do I need to learn/develop?
- Who has the necessary skills or knowledge to help me?
- What else is missing and how can I get it?
Once you have identified what is needed you can take action to acquire it, either for yourself, or by asking for help. Identifying the missing piece and acquiring it naturally develops our resilience. The next time a similar situation arises we will already have the necessary skills to perform without becoming anxious.
Next time…
In the next blog we will take a deeper look at the resilient mindset
Find out more
Free Fact Sheet: Visit our resources page to download your free resilience factsheet
YouTube video: Check out our video packed with tips for developing a resilient mindset
Subscribe to our YouTube channel as well – lots more videos will be coming soon
